These are dark days for Democrats. Obama speaks to half-filled halls. Clinton speaks to half-asleep crowds.

Enthusiasm runs high for Democrats this year

WLS-AM has the yawn-inducing details:

Former President Bill Clinton’s ‘get out the vote’ rally for Democrats at a downtown Chicago hotel was the most unenthusiastic WLS veteran political reporter Bill Cameron has ever witnessed.

Clinton was an hour late for the Tuesday afternoon rally at the Palmer House and droned on for another hour, sending dozens of the few hundred Democrats in attendance for the exits.

“Well, all we’re really asking for is two more years, that’s a total of four, to get us out of the hole and get us into the future. That’s half as much time as you gave them to dig the hole. Seems fair to us,” Clinton said.

The state’s most popular Democrat Lisa Madigan was conspicuously absent as were state party chairman Mike Madigan and Mayor Richard Daley.

Madigan and Daley were just the beginning. By the end of the speech most of the audience was also conspicuously absent.